I18n aka Internationalization and localization

In my AppMancer projects, I use a class called AppText, which provides me with app text from XML. I've attached the code below, but it requires the AppMancer AMXml library.

I think that XML is probably the way to go, but with MoSync 3.0 then there is a new resource compiler which can condtionally add all sorts of extras per platform or release, so you can easily add in different language .lst files as well, which will have a lower overhead.

Doh - I forgot the files! Put the XML into your resources

// You can hold all of the text your application displays in external XML files
.res LANGUAGE_EN
.ubin
.include "Languages/en-GB.xml"

, and call AppText::setLanguageFile(LANGUAGE_EN); when you start the app. You can create as many language XML files as you may want, and add then to the resources. I often add en-GB.xml and fr-FR.xml for example, and can then switch language with one line, or even let the user choose.

You can then write lines like:

Label* l = createLabel(AppText::getText("WelcomeMessage"));

Which will put the inner text property of the Xml node 'WelcomeMessage' into the label.

The Xml should look something like this:

<apptext>
	<WelcomeMessage>Welcome.</WelcomeMessage>
	<Menu>Menu</Menu>
	<Exit>Exit</Exit>
	<Home>Home</Home>
	<Back>Back</Back>
	<OK>OK</OK>
	<AlertMessage>Self-destruct in 29 seconds...</AlertMessage>
	<LorumIpsum>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent vitae dolor id erat tristique scelerisque. </LorumIpsum>
	<Calendar>Calendar</Calendar>
	<EnterName>Enter your name</EnterName>
</apptext>

As I said earlier, this is dependent on AMXml, but you can take this approach without using it as well.